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Upheaval In ERP Market Shifts Focus to Lean Front End

Chicago, Illinois – July 17, 2003 – BigMachines, Inc., a premier provider of innovative IT solutions for industrial manufacturers, has announced a surge in activity for its Lean Front-End (LFE) solution. According to the company, the current ERP market consolidation and uncertain direction have generated vigorous new interest in applications for industrial manufacturers, especially those with complex quote-to-order processes.

BigMachines' management team states that the rise in demand is being fueled by two distinct segments of the industrial marketplace. First, an increasing number of customers of top-tier ERP vendors have tabled their ERP discussions in favor of investigating the use of LFE to transform their complex front-end processes to create an immediate and significant ROI opportunity. The second group comprises industrial manufacturers using legacy ERP solutions – MANMAN, MacPac, BPCS, PRMS – who are understandably wary about evaluating vendors and selecting a new system until the playing field becomes clear. Many of these companies are satisfied in general with back-end performance and see greater gains to be made by improving front-end processes.

Commenting on these market trends, Godard Abel, CEO of BigMachines, said: "Although many industry analysts and our own senior management team anticipated the ERP market consolidation, I don't think anyone could have predicted the ripple effect now being caused by today's consolidation conditions. When we introduced our LFE solution, we expected a traditional product rollout. Now, with the uncertainty of where ERP vendors are going in terms of customer support, our solution has become a more serious consideration for all industrial manufacturers. This is primarily due to the immediate value we can add to the front-end of the business, as well as the flexibility our solution offers to hook into whichever enterprise application suite they ultimately choose."

"Smart companies are always pursuing process improvement and improved business metrics," continued Abel. "With our Lean Front-End solution to standardize and synchronize their front-end processes, they can reduce quote-to-order cycle times by 50 to 100 percent and reduce operating costs by two to five percent of revenue, while boosting operating profits by 30 to 60 percent."

BigMachines (www.bigmachines.com) enables industrial manufacturers to quickly transform their front-end sales and customer service processes by delivering the Lean Front-End.